Legislation Tracker

Forthcoming Legislation

Employment Rights (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Effective
EU Exit Day

The following draft regulations make amendments to employment law to reflect the withdrawal of the UK from the EU in the event that there is no deal with the EU.

Restriction of Public Sector Exit Payments Regulations 2019

Effective
to be confirmed

These draft regulations introduce a cap of £95,000 on public sector exit payments associated with loss of employment.

Public Sector Exit Payments to be capped and recoverable

Effective
to be confirmed

The Government has produced draft legislation to cap public sector exit payments (the Draft Public Sector Exit Payments Regulations 2016) and to make them recoverable when a high earner returns to the public sector within 12 months of leaving (the Draft Repayment of Public Sector Exit Payments Regulations 2016).

Changes to the Employment Tribunals Act 1996

Effective
to be confirmed

Following its consultation on reforming the employment tribunal system, the Government intends to make the following changes to the Employment Tribunals Act 1996.

Regulations to introduce fines on trade unions

Effective
to be confirmed

The draft Trade Union (Financial Penalties) Regulations allow trade union Certification Officers to fine unions for non-compliance with statutory requirements.

Investigatory Powers (Interception by Businesses etc. for Monitoring and Record-keeping Purposes) Regulations 2018

Effective
to be confirmed

These regulations come under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. Similar provisions are currently contained in the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000, which these new regulations will replace.

Scotland legislates to increase the number of women on public boards

Effective
to be confirmed

The Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 sets a “gender representation objective” for public authorities in Scotland when they make appointments to non-executive board positions.

New legislation to ensure tips go to workers

Effective
to be confirmed

The Government is to introduce legislation to ensure that tips left for workers go to them in full.

Four-week break will not interrupt continuity of employment

Effective
to be confirmed

The Government is to extend from one week to four weeks the period that breaks continuity of employment when assessing eligibility for statutory employment rights.

The right to request a more stable contract

Effective
to be confirmed

The Government is to introduce a new right for all workers to request a more predictable and stable contract.

Ministers required to consider EU employment law after Brexit

Effective
to be confirmed

The Government has issued draft legislation requiring ministers to make a statement of compatibility where a post-Brexit Bill affects employment rights or workplace health and safety standards.

IR35 reform to apply in the private sector

Effective
6 April 2020

The Government has announced in the Budget that a reform to the off-payroll working (IR35) rules that has been introduced in the public sector will be extended to medium and large companies in the private sector.

Agency Workers (Amendment) Regulations 2019

Reference
SI 2019/724
Effective
6 April 2020

These regulations amend the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 so that agency workers will no longer be able to opt out of their equal pay entitlements.

Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2018

Reference
SI 2018/1378
Effective
6 April 2020

These regulations require employers to provide all workers with a written statement of employment particulars on the day employment begins (currently the statement has to be provided within eight weeks).

Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019

Effective
6 April 2019 and 6 April 2020

These draft regulations introduce three changes.

National Insurance Contributions Bill

Effective
6 April 2020

The National Insurance Contributions Bill will introduce employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) on termination payments over £30,000. This was going to take effect from 6 April 2018, then 6 April 2019 and the change is now due on 6 April 2020.

Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018

Reference
SI 2018/24
Effective
April 2020

The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018 entitles parents who lose a child under the age of 18 to two weeks' paid leave.

Legislation Now in Force

Decision (EU) 2019/584 taken in agreement with the United Kingdom extending the period under Article 50(3) TEU

Reference
Decision (EU) 2019/584
Effective
11 April 2019

An EU Decision has been published regarding an extension of the period before the UK leaves the Union.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019

Reference
Chapter 16
Effective
9 April 2019

This Act is somewhat unusual in that, rather than being put forward by the Government, it was proposed by MPs. It requires the Prime Minister to present her plan to request a delay to the Article 50 process, under which the UK is set to leave the European Union, in the form of an amendable motion and prevents her from suggesting any date before 22 May 2019.

Increases to statutory maternity pay and other statutory pay rates

Effective
7 April 2019

The Government has announced increases in the weekly rates for statutory maternity pay and other types of statutory pay from April 2019.

Employer contributions to auto-enrolment pensions increase to 3%

Reference
SI 2016/719
Effective
6 April 2019

On 6 April 2019 the minimum contribution employers are required to make to auto-enrolment pensions increases from 2% to 3%.

Maximum penalty for aggravated breach increases to £20,000

Effective
6 April 2019

The Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 increases the maximum financial penalty

Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019

Reference
SI 2019/731
Effective
6 April 2019 and 6 April 2020

These regulations introduce three changes. The first change increases the maximum financial penalty available for aggravated breach of a worker’s employment rights from £5000 to £20,000, this came into force on 6 April 2019.

Payslips must state hours worked

Effective
6 April 2019

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 requires employers to provide additional information about the number of hours that are being paid for within the itemised pay statement (payslip) of employees for whom pay varies according to the number of hours worked.

Right to itemised payslips extended to workers

Reference
SI 2018/529
Effective
6 April 2019

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2018 extends the right to receive an itemised pay statement (payslip), which previously only applied to employees, to all workers.

Abolition of receipt checking for benchmark scale rate travel expenses

Effective
6 April 2019

A clause in the Finance Act 2019 removes the requirement for employers to check receipts when using the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) benchmark scale rates to pay or reimburse their employees’ qualifying subsistence expenses.

Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2019

Reference
SI 2019/324
Effective
6 April 2019

The increases to tribunal award limits from 6 April 2019 are set out in the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2019.

Minimum wage increases from April 2019

Effective
1 April 2019

The Government has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommended increases to the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates.

The Armed Forces (Terms of Service) (Amendments Relating to Flexible Working) Regulations 2018

Effective
1 April 2019

These regulations introduce two new types of flexible working (known collectively as “flexible service”) for those serving in the regular Armed Forces (the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Army and the Royal Air Force).

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (Exit Day) (Amendment) Regulations 2019

Reference
SI 2019/590
Effective
29 March 2019

These Regulations confirm that “exit day”, as used in previous legislation, now refers to either 12 April or 22 May 2019.

Large companies required to report on directors’ pay and probity

Effective
1 January 2019

The draft Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018 introduce new reporting requirements in order to build confidence in the way that large private and quoted companies are run.

The Time Off for Public Duties Order 2018

Reference
2018 No.665
Effective
1 October 2018

This Order amends the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) to grant unpaid time off work to four groups of volunteers in the criminal justice system who monitor conditions of those in custody.

Whistleblowing Order amended

Reference
2018 No.665
Effective
1 August 2018

The Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) (Amendment) Order 2018 adds Audit Scotland to the list of prescribed persons and bodies to report malpractice to other than an employer.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018

Effective
26 June 2018 and by regulations

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act repeals the European Communities Act 1972 (under which EU laws have effect in the UK) on the day the UK leaves the EU.

Trade Secrets Directive

Effective
9 June 2018

The EU Trade Secrets Directive was adopted by the European Parliament and Council on 8 June 2016. Member States have two years from this date to implement the directive, ie by 9 June 2018.

Data Protection Act 2018

Effective
25 May 2018

The Data Protection Act 2018 aims to modernise data protection laws in the UK to make them fit for purpose for an increasingly digital economy and society.

General Data Protection Regulation

Effective
25 May 2018

The General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679 EU) (GDPR) replaces the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC).

The Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018

Effective
25 May 2018

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force on 25 May 2018.

Regulations to protect whistleblowers applying for NHS jobs

Reference
2018 No. 579
Effective
23 May 2018

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (NHS Recruitment — Protected Disclosure) Regulations 2018 prohibit an NHS employer from discriminating against an applicant because it appears that the applicant has made a protected disclosure.

Government Consultations

Consultation on regulations to cap public sector exit payments

The Government has legislated for a cap of £95,000 on public sector exit payments associated with loss of employment.

Consultation on April 2020 National Minimum Wage rates

The Low Pay Commission is seeking evidence to inform its recommendations to the Government about the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates that should apply from April 2020.

Consultation on off-payroll working rules from April 2020

In last autumn’s Budget, the Government announced that, from April 2020, the reform to the off-payroll working (IR35) rules that has been introduced in the public sector will be extended to medium and large companies in the private sector. It is now consulting on the operation of the new rules.

Consultation on measures to prevent misuse of confidentiality clauses

The purpose of the consultation is to improve understanding of how confidentiality clauses work in practice and to assess what changes are needed to ensure individuals are appropriately protected from their misuse.

Pregnancy and maternity discrimination: Consultation on extending redundancy protection for women and new parents

The Government is proposing to extend the scope of the current protection against redundancy provided for those on maternity leave by the Maternity and Parental Leave, etc Regulations (1999).

Consultation on Local Government Pension Scheme: Fair Deal – Strengthening pension protection

This consultation contains proposals to strengthen the pensions protections that apply when an employee of a Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) employer is compulsorily transferred to the employment of a service provider.

Consultation: pensions dashboards — working together for the consumer

This consultation seeks views on a range of questions relating to the creation of pensions dashboards.

Consultation: reforming employment law hearing structures

The Law Commission is consulting on reforming employment law hearing structures.

Consultation: ethnicity pay reporting

The Government is consulting on a mandatory approach to ethnicity pay reporting by employers.

National Minimum Wage: Consultation on salaried workers and salary sacrifice schemes

This consultation concerns the National Minimum Wage rules regarding salaried workers and the operation of salary sacrifice schemes.

Call for evidence: UK Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2019/20

To help inform his enforcement strategy for next year, Director of Labour Market Enforcement David Metcalf is seeking evidence and views on hotels, restaurants and food services, and warehousing sectors.

Call for evidence: supporting ex-offenders on their path to employment

The Government is committed to supporting ex-offenders on their path to employment.

Consultation on Protecting Defined Benefit Pension Schemes — A Stronger Pensions Regulator

This is the first of a series of consultations following a Government White Paper Protecting Defined Benefit Pension Schemes.

Consultation on off-payroll working in the private sector

Since April 2017 there has been a change to off-payroll working rules (IR35) in the public sector.

Consultation on the Information Commissioner Office’s draft regulatory action policy

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a consultation on how it plans to regulate new data protection laws.

Consultation on parental bereavement leave and pay

The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Bill is currently being considered in Parliament.

Consultation on employment status

This consultation considers possible changes to the employment status framework in the light of the findings of the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices.

Consultation on April 2019 National Minimum Wage rates

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) is seeking evidence to inform its recommendations to the Government about the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates that should apply from April 2019.

Consultation on measures to increase transparency in the UK labour market

This consultation considers the following areas relating to the Taylor Review’s recommendations on increasing transparency in the labour market.

Consultation on the Taylor Review’s recommendations on the enforcement of employment rights

This consultation considers the following areas relating to the Taylor Review’s recommendations on the enforcement of employment rights.

Consultation on the Taylor Review’s agency worker recommendations

This consultation seeks views on the recommendations made by the , published on 11 July 2017, regarding the enforcement of agency workers’ employment rights.

Codes of Practice

Recruitment of childcare workers: changes to disqualification arrangements

Effective
31 August 2018

The Government is removing a rule by which a childcare worker can be disqualified from employment because someone who lives or works in their household is disqualified.

Revised Code of Practice on preventing illegal working

Effective
28 January 2019

The Government has updated its Code of Practice that sets out the prescribed checks that employers should conduct to avoid a civil penalty in the event of illegal working.

Older Legislation in Force

Decision (EU) 2019/584 taken in agreement with the United Kingdom extending the period under Article 50(3) TEU

Reference
Decision (EU) 2019/584
Effective
11 April 2019

An EU Decision has been published regarding an extension of the period before the UK leaves the Union.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019

Reference
Chapter 16
Effective
9 April 2019

This Act is somewhat unusual in that, rather than being put forward by the Government, it was proposed by MPs. It requires the Prime Minister to present her plan to request a delay to the Article 50 process, under which the UK is set to leave the European Union, in the form of an amendable motion and prevents her from suggesting any date before 22 May 2019.

Increases to statutory maternity pay and other statutory pay rates

Effective
7 April 2019

The Government has announced increases in the weekly rates for statutory maternity pay and other types of statutory pay from April 2019.

Employer contributions to auto-enrolment pensions increase to 3%

Reference
SI 2016/719
Effective
6 April 2019

On 6 April 2019 the minimum contribution employers are required to make to auto-enrolment pensions increases from 2% to 3%.

Maximum penalty for aggravated breach increases to £20,000

Effective
6 April 2019

The Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 increases the maximum financial penalty

Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019

Reference
SI 2019/731
Effective
6 April 2019 and 6 April 2020

These regulations introduce three changes. The first change increases the maximum financial penalty available for aggravated breach of a worker’s employment rights from £5000 to £20,000, this came into force on 6 April 2019.

Payslips must state hours worked

Effective
6 April 2019

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) Order 2018 requires employers to provide additional information about the number of hours that are being paid for within the itemised pay statement (payslip) of employees for whom pay varies according to the number of hours worked.

Right to itemised payslips extended to workers

Reference
SI 2018/529
Effective
6 April 2019

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Itemised Pay Statement) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2018 extends the right to receive an itemised pay statement (payslip), which previously only applied to employees, to all workers.

Abolition of receipt checking for benchmark scale rate travel expenses

Effective
6 April 2019

A clause in the Finance Act 2019 removes the requirement for employers to check receipts when using the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) benchmark scale rates to pay or reimburse their employees’ qualifying subsistence expenses.

Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2019

Reference
SI 2019/324
Effective
6 April 2019

The increases to tribunal award limits from 6 April 2019 are set out in the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2019.

Minimum wage increases from April 2019

Effective
1 April 2019

The Government has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommended increases to the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates.

The Armed Forces (Terms of Service) (Amendments Relating to Flexible Working) Regulations 2018

Effective
1 April 2019

These regulations introduce two new types of flexible working (known collectively as “flexible service”) for those serving in the regular Armed Forces (the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Army and the Royal Air Force).

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (Exit Day) (Amendment) Regulations 2019

Reference
SI 2019/590
Effective
29 March 2019

These Regulations confirm that “exit day”, as used in previous legislation, now refers to either 12 April or 22 May 2019.

Large companies required to report on directors’ pay and probity

Effective
1 January 2019

The draft Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018 introduce new reporting requirements in order to build confidence in the way that large private and quoted companies are run.

The Time Off for Public Duties Order 2018

Reference
2018 No.665
Effective
1 October 2018

This Order amends the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) to grant unpaid time off work to four groups of volunteers in the criminal justice system who monitor conditions of those in custody.

Whistleblowing Order amended

Reference
2018 No.665
Effective
1 August 2018

The Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) (Amendment) Order 2018 adds Audit Scotland to the list of prescribed persons and bodies to report malpractice to other than an employer.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018

Effective
26 June 2018 and by regulations

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act repeals the European Communities Act 1972 (under which EU laws have effect in the UK) on the day the UK leaves the EU.

Trade Secrets Directive

Effective
9 June 2018

The EU Trade Secrets Directive was adopted by the European Parliament and Council on 8 June 2016. Member States have two years from this date to implement the directive, ie by 9 June 2018.

Data Protection Act 2018

Effective
25 May 2018

The Data Protection Act 2018 aims to modernise data protection laws in the UK to make them fit for purpose for an increasingly digital economy and society.

General Data Protection Regulation

Effective
25 May 2018

The General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679 EU) (GDPR) replaces the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC).

The Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018

Effective
25 May 2018

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force on 25 May 2018.

Regulations to protect whistleblowers applying for NHS jobs

Reference
2018 No. 579
Effective
23 May 2018

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (NHS Recruitment — Protected Disclosure) Regulations 2018 prohibit an NHS employer from discriminating against an applicant because it appears that the applicant has made a protected disclosure.